THE Holyrood committee which played a key role in scrutinising Police Scotland failures could being abolished, according to a leaked paper.
Opposition MSPs have expressed alarm at suggestions the justice sub-committee on policing, which acted as a watchdog in the last parliamentary term, may be axed.
Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur said: “I cannot understand why anyone would think it is a good idea to undermine scrutiny of Police Scotland at a time when the service is facing major challenges.”
Critics of the single force – a flagship SNP Government policy – have been concerned at the perceived lack of oversight of Police Scotland.
The Scottish Police Authority, the official watchdog, is deemed to have struggled since its creation, while many local authority scrutiny committees have had a low profile.
The justice sub-committee, comprised of MSPs and created specifically to monitor the impact of the single force, grilled former chief constable Stephen House and put pressure on the Government.
MSPs have held sessions on stop and search, armed policing, illegal spying, call handling, and the botched i6 programme. It met 38 times between 2013 and 2016 and is one of only two sub-committees to be established by the parliament.
The sub-committee’s latest report stated: “Given the justice committee’s workload, it is clear that police reform would not have been subject to the level of scrutiny required in these early years had the sub-committee on policing not been created.”
However, a paper by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) - the umbrella group for Scottish councils - has suggested that plans are afoot for the committee to be wound up.
The paper flagged up the opportunities for greater scrutiny of policing by councillors and noted: “Furthermore, the Scottish Parliament is not expected to establish a justice sub-committee on policing. This parliamentary committee often assumed a national scrutiny role and its absence will create a space that locally elected members may wish to move into.”
The final decision will be a matter for the full justice committee, which has a majority of opposition MSPs and meets on Tuesday.
A number of justice committee members are sympathetic to keeping the sub-committee in place.
McArthur said: “Scrutiny from the MSPs who sat on the sub-committee was instrumental in exposing major problems with things like the stop and search of children and the deployment of armed police on routine duties. They also showed up the complacency of SNP ministers, who regularly insisted that everything was going according to plan.
“It now appears that someone at COSLA has been told that the sub-committee is for the axe. It would be fascinating to know who has been briefing them and what their motivation might be.
“I will be pushing for the justice committee to continue effective, stand-alone scrutiny of policing and the government’s botched centralisation agenda when Parliament returns next week.”
John Finnie, a Green MSP and former police officer, said: “The justice committee will discuss our work programme on Tuesday and it would be wrong to pre-empt that meeting. However, the public can be reassured that, from informal discussions that have already taken place, all members recognise the importance of robust scrutiny of the police and that will be reflected in decisions taken at that meeting.”
Douglas Ross, a Tory MSP, echoed Finnie’s view: “The justice sub-committee has done some great work in the past and discussions are continuing at the moment which I would hope will see this important function to continue in some form through the committee."
SNP member Rona Mackay, who is also deputy convener of the committee, said: “Parliament resumes on Tuesday and this is entirely an issue for the justice committee to discuss.”
Her SNP colleague, Stewart Stevenson, did not respond to an email.
A spokesperson for COSLA said: “It is a private paper and COSLA won’t comment on a private report.”
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